Leadership Team
J. Howard Ragsdale, Jr., CFA
Managing Partner
J. Howard Ragsdale, Jr., CFA, is the Managing Partner at Hoss Tree Advisors, bringing with him decades of leadership in business growth, investment strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. Over his career, he has started, led, scaled, and sold multiple successful national companies. He also served as Chairman of a tree service company. Howard has over 30 years of institutional investment management experience.
Howard has been a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) for over 25 years. Howard holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. degree in Finance.
Beyond the boardroom, Howard is deeply dedicated to education and community service. He mentors aspiring finance professionals at Belmont University and leads the investment committee at Trevecca University. Additionally, he imparts leadership skills to local small businesses and nonprofits through Model Netics, a comprehensive management training and development program.
Joe Drake
Managing Partner
Joe Drake brings to Hoss Tree Advisors his extensive Wall Street and operational leadership experience across several industries including the tree service industry. He served as Chief Financial Officer for multiple companies, guiding them through growth and successful sales to major private equity backed firms. As an investor in a tree service company, he applied his merger and acquisition experience by advising on the buying and selling of several tree service businesses.
His operational experience is enhanced by a decade of investment banking experience, having worked in both institutional finance and equity research at Stephens Inc. and Raymond James.
A summa cum laude graduate of Belmont University, Joe earned top honors in Finance and Entrepreneurship and was awarded Student of the Year.
Aaron Kolarich
Partner
Aaron Kolarich has spearheaded repeatable success by leveraging his emphasis on relationship building. He recognizes that the most critical elements in the sales process are Trust, Transparency, Authenticity, and Integrity. By Integrating these four axioms, he has produced repeated success and strength of leadership in roles such as VP of Sales in Financial Tech and VP of Sales and Development in the construction space. Aaron also has an education and training background at both the corporate and local unit level across several industries including healthcare and hospitality.
